Buffet or assorted: What do you prefer?

How many of us like a 'one-stop shop' for all our needs. A place where you get to buy stationaries, groceries, veggies, furniture, clothing... the list goes on, under one roof. The fact is a majority of us do.

It is on this consumerist mindset that the modern day malls thrived upon, slowly thinning away the old day 'kirana' and 'mandi' culture that we once had.

Now, coming to telecom networking space, it is no different either. Cisco has been the undisputable leader in this space for a long time. Even today it is, however not so dominating as it once used to be. For, the likes of HP, Juniper, and Brocade have been giving it a tough ride, of late.

The networking giant, which had been tagging 'one-stop-shop mantra' for its products, however, faced a set back when analyst firm Gartner published its report 'Debunking the Myth of the Single-Vendor Network', late last year.

The analyst group, in the report, said that customers can save money by using networking equipments from other vendors. It even went to the extent of warning people that it is more of a mis-conception that such single vendor networks will be less complex and have less interoperability issues.

In turn, Cisco aired a webcast, 'Debunking the Myth of the “Good Enough” Network', recently where it challenged Gartner's claims and questions as to how 'good enough' are Gartner's 'good enough' multi vendor networks.

Rob Lloyd, Cisco executive vice president of worldwide operations, and Mike Rau, vice president and chief technology officer for Cisco Borderless Networks, sat down to break the 'myth' that Gartner proposed.

Through out the webcast the Cisco executives were seen thrusting the same point that 'price is not everything'.

Rob said that today there is a debate about 'whether the network really matters?'.

"On one side we have newcomers to the networking industry and some industry commentators who believe that the value of a network should be determined only by the cost of its components. They argue that customers should focus squarely on acquisition cost, not the value of their network assets. They argue that customers should focus on capital cost, not network capability and innovation,” he added.

He also said that such people believe the network has become a utility; that ‘good’ is good enough.

Whereas, on the other there are people "who recognize the fundamental contribution that the network can make to driving innovation, productivity, and enabling new business models," he noted.

"The debate is about making a choice between a tactical network where getting the lowest possible price up front is paramount — and a strategic network investment that enables customers to adapt quickly to new business imperatives and to handle the increased demands on their business," says Mike.

The executives go ahead and break the 'seven most misleading Myths of the Good Enough Network'.

Coupled with the video is a white paper titled "When 'Good Enough' Is Not Good Enough," which talks about network latency during video streaming to mobile device security in an network architecture.

It is not clear how far the executives will succeed in breaking the so called 'myths', although it has today become a growing and accepted trend. Maybe, Cisco believes that it can at least take a chance and can instill a second thought into customers' minds, who wish to go for a different vendor for cheaper 'goods'.

However, it has to be seen to what extent does this webcast cast an effect on customers, more so because it is a matter of business continuity than a choice.

What do you think?